Water School

  Runoff is the portion of precipitation that doesn’t soak into soil and instead moves from land to streams or other surface water. Runoff can be caused by precipitation, snowmelt and irrigation that the Earth does not soak up. There are three types of runoffs. They include:•    Surface Runoff: Water after precipitation merges with streams or surface water•    Subsurface Runoff: Water soaks into the soil and merges into the water table, the...

A floodplain is any ordinarily dry land area susceptible to inundation by water. This area is usually low, flat, and next to a stream or other body of water. Living on a floodplain can be especially dangerous in the circumstance that flooding does occur. There is always some risk for those on a floodplain, whether it’s people, businesses, or agriculture. Some floodplains are clearly defined by natural features, by infrastructure made by people, or not clearly outlined.Some floodplains are ...

Flood stage is an established gage height within a creek or river above which a rise in water surface level is described as a flood. This is the elevation at which the overflow of the natural banks of a stream or body of water begins.The gage height is the height of the water surface above a predetermined point. Once the gage height becomes too high in the lowest bank of reach this is when flood damage begins to impact an area. The National Weather Service uses gage height numbers to inform peop...

The National Weather Service issues a flash flood warning to inform the public, emergency management, and other cooperating agencies that flash flooding is in progress, imminent, or highly likely.

The National Flood Insurance Program is a federal insurance program under which flood-prone areas are identified and flood insurance is made available to residents of participating communities that agree to adopt and enforce floodplain management ordinances to reduce future flood damage.  For additional information and qualification requirements, click here.

A 500-year flood is a high streamflow that overflows the natural or artificial banks of a waterway and has a two-tenths of 1% chance of occurring in any given year.

A 50-year flood is a high streamflow that overflows the natural or artificial banks of a water way and has a two percent chance of occurring in any given year.

A 10-year flood is a high streamflow that overflows the natural or artificial banks of a waterway and has a 10% chance of occurring in any given year.

A 100-year flood is a flood event that it has a 1 percent chance of happening in any given year. The term “100-year” is a measure of a flood’s size, not how often it occurs. Although statistically unlikely, several 100-year floods can occur within the same year or a few short years. It is also called the base flood.